June 4, 2010

There's a headline I completely misinterpreted. I imagined Rush Limbaugh had made some argument that Rand Paul can't behave like the Mark Twain character. Was Paul attempting to pass himself off as a good-hearted, mischievous boy? But no, "Rush" is the rock band Rush, and "Tom Sawyer" is one of their songs. Paul had been blasting the song at rallies and the band — which is Canadian, by the way — has objected, citing copyright law. The song, despite copyright law, is embedded at the link. Here are the lyrics. Sample:

Today's Tom Sawyer
He gets high on you
And the space he invades
He gets by on you

No his mind is not for rent
To any god or government
Always hopeful, yet discontent
He knows changes aren't permanent
But change is

I was disappointed that Governor Palin couldn't use Barracuda. The lyric makes no sense (come to think on it, that might be appropriate), but it played on her nickname and was exactly the right age. And it's a great entrance tune.

While I'm a Rush fan as well, and for some reason "Tom Sawyer" is the most-aired track from the "Moving Pictures" album, it has always struck me as one of the weaker. "Red Barchetta" is a much better poke in the eye at the all-powerful state. "Limelight", "Witch Hunt", and even the instrumental "YYZ" are all stronger tracks.

Rush can be interesting in a sexless, geek-rock sort of way, but "Tom Sawyer" is a clammy, stupid song that the "Classic Rock" stations took an inexplicable shine to, as they did to the similarly rubbish "Subdivisions". They're both so-so tunes with bad lyrics, full of broken rhymes.

Rush isn't libertarian or statist or any true ideology, really. They seem to be one of those groups who just gobble up random pseudo-intellectual ideas & regurgitate them in a striking fashion, almost at random. The ideas can be mutually contradictory, with the same band recording "the Trees", "Anthem", "New World Man", "Big Money", "the Spirit of Radio" and "Bastille Day".

They're consistently, aggressively atheistic, though. See "Hemispheres" and "Free Will". If Paul wanted to end his career right now, he could always campaign with "Free Will" blaring.

I love love love Rush. I've even been going through something of a renneaisence lately listening to them. Oddly, I have never owned Fly By Night or Farewell to Kings.

Unless they're doing this for real copyright reasons, it kind of makes me think less of them. IIRC, during the last campaign some Democrat was using a country song by a conservative artist who commented that he was happy his song was being used as part of the democratic process. That seemed to me far more adult than the usual whiny liberals who piss and moan about Republicans using their songs. (Yeah, Ann and Nancy Wilson, you both can kiss my ass).

I think that started with Springsteen (who bores the living hell out of me) bitching because Reagan was playing Born In The USA. Christ, what a baby.

I've been curious about Rush's relationship with Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders. She's pretty radical on the animal rights/PETA front, and yet she lends "My City Was Gone" as Rush's theme song (great tune). What's the story? Hopefully it means cash prevailed.

An edited instrumental version of The Pretenders' “My City Was Gone” has been Limbaugh's theme song almost continuously since the start of his show. Briefly in 1999, Limbaugh stopped playing the song while negotiating with the song's writer, Chrissie Hynde. Limbaugh now pays her $100,000 per year, which she donates to the animal rights organization PETA.

Re: Rush. Also, they recorded a historical ballad about the development of nuclear weapons ("Manhattan Project").

@Alan: I think the reason that "Red Barchetta" isn't used as a libertarian anthem is that you need to know the backstory to understand why the song is anti-government. (If you don't know, look for "A Nice Morning Drive".)